Work Text:
Mount Bromo, Indonesia
6.39 WIB
Jung Yoonoh took pride on many things he achieved in life: his stellar work as a pediatric surgeon in Seoul's most prestigious teaching hospital, being a father to a polite and sweet son like the currently-6-year-old Jeno, and his excellent control on his temper.
Of many things he was in agreement with his ex-wife, Jeno’s mother, one thing particularly stood out. They both believed that what one thinks will become words, the word becomes actions, the action becomes routine, and finally, routine becomes character. What one thinks, one becomes.
The idealism was reflected in the way they nurture Jeno. Having been closely involved with children, Yoonoh and his wife had made Jeno grow up in a—one can say—quite-tightly controlled environment. From a young age, he learned manner and whatnots. They made sure Jeno goes to the best private school, both in Seoul and Jakarta. Being privy to the learning speed of a child, Yoonoh was always ready to slap everyone who had the audacity to swear in front of his son.
Yoonoh was having a quality time with his precious son—trekking after watching the sunrise in the infamous Bromo mountain peak—when his ear caught someone groaned and spat a string of profanities in fluent Korean. He couldn’t stop his head from snapping in that direction.
He was ready to pounce on that said someone but his eyes were widened when he found a young Korean boy—approximately in Jeno's age—clutching his right leg in pain. His tanned skin glimmered under the sunlight. His body was smeared with dirt in multiple places. Yoonoh guessed that he fell. The morning dew made the track very slippery that he had nearly stumbled a few times himself. A number of tourists—the majority of them were locals—had started to gather around but they seemed failed to communicate with him.
Yoonoh immediately squatted down in front of the boy.
"Hello. What's your name, Son?"
"It's... it's... Lee Donghyuck, Ahjussi. Fuck*. It hurts so fucking much." He said while staring at his leg.
Yoonoh flinched at the expletive, especially because he knew Jeno was standing beside him. He would get to it later after resolving this poor young man’s pain.
Well, the boy's shin bone was crooked. Thankfully, there was no open wound seen. It was a closed fracture, then. Yoonoh himself knew how painful it was to have your bone broken and how some of his colleagues argued swearing hypothetically could lessen it so this time he would let the boy go.
“Okay. You can call me Yoonoh-ahjussi. Does your head hurt, Donghyuckie?” he calmly said when he grasped Donghyuck’s wrist, trying to find his pulse. There were a million possibilities of trauma and Yoonoh was drilled to make sure to cross off the worst scenarios from the list first.
“Nope, it’s fine. I fell on my right side.” He gritted his teeth. “My right shoulder can’t be moved. Fuck.” For a young kid, he was sure smart and perceptive.
“Let’s see your shoulder then,” Yoonoh prompted to remove his jacket. The boy hissed in pain. His right arm was bent in a weird way. After a series of examination, Yoonoh concluded that Donghyuck had shoulder dislocation.
“Are you alone?”
“No, I came with my father. Fuck. He went to the toilet alone because I insisted to stay here waiting for him. I was too tired to walk back and forth.”
“Okay, l can fix the shoulder but I will need approval from your guardian first. Let’s wait for him.”
Yoonoh always kept extra pain medication, splint, and emergency surgical kit in his trekking rucksack. Just in case anything like this happened.
While Yoonoh was working on Donghyuck’s shin, Jeno offered Donghyuck his chocolate supply and the two were busy talking about cartoons after that. Yoonoh noticed how Donghyuck’s profanities ceased significantly after he sprayed anesthetic in his wounds, even though his attuned ear still picked an occasional slip of swear words when Donghyuck described his favorite superhero scenes to Jeno.
"Hyuckie!!!" a middle-aged man ran to them. His hands grasped a plastic bag full of steamed corns and peanuts.
"Are you Mr. Lee? I'm Jung Yoonoh," Yoonoh said. "Your son slipped and I think he dislocated his right shoulder and fractured his leg. He will need surgery and get his bone pinned together for the fracture. The local hospital can be reached within three hours by car if you go now."
"I have splinted his shin but I need to reduce the dislocation before splinting it. I can do it here if you give your consent, of course. And…” He continued to rant. ”Oh, I'm working in SUH as a surgeon," Yoonoh added when he saw a blank expression on Mr. Lee's face. He opened his wallet to show his ID card.
Mr. Lee exhaled a long breath, feeling relieved that his son was in the right hand. "Please do, Dr. Jung. Thank you so much for your help."
"Are you ready, Hyuckie? It’ll be weird at first, but it will feel a lot better afterward."
***
"Your dad is fucking cool, Jen. He fixed my shoulder in a split second!” Donghyuck mimicked Yoonoh spraying anesthetic and sequence of reposition movement. ”Psss! Wham, bam, voila!"
"Yeah, I've just realized it myself. I’m very thankful. You should see my mother. She always said she’s the cooler parent because she can save two lives with just one surgery.”
“Wow, how it feels like to have superhero parents? It must be good to be you, huh?” Donghyuck asked. “My mother passed away last year and it was only the two of us left. He’s busy managing our family restaurant so I often feel lonely,” he muttered sadly.
“Well, I’m sorry to hear that, Donghyuckie,” Jeno cooed, sympathetic. “I also often get lonely lately. My parents were… separated and we—my mother and I—moved to Jakarta earlier this year. I’m having a hard time to make friends currently because they don’t eat kimchi here.”
“What? Are they crazy? Kimchi is the fucking best food ever!”
“I know, right?” Jeno laughed at the disbelief written vividly in Donghyuck’s face. “By the way, Hyuck-ah, what does fuck mean? I was born and raised in Korea but how come I’ve never heard of it before. Is it truly a Korean word?”
“Where have you been, man? It’s informal Korean.” The tan-skinned boy replied. “Well, to be honest, I learned it a month ago. Ten-hyung who lives near me said it means ‘very’ or ‘an indescribable lot’ but in a cooler, more swagger way, you know?” his voice was so very convincing.
Jeno nodded, mentally taking note.
The conversation was cut short because Donghyuck got called. The car was ready to transport him to the hospital. Donghyuck lay on an orange stretcher. He did not forget tilting his head to smile at Yoonoh and Jeno.
“Thank you so much, Yoonoh-ahjussi! Jeno-ya, nice to meet you! I’ll treat you our best kimchi fried rice with bulgogi later when you visit Seoul!” Donghyuck beamed, his smile brighter than the sun.
***
Jeno had never parted with his mother for longer than two days. This was the first time because, after the separation, Yoonoh asked him to have regular father-son bonding time. Having spent the last four days exploring cold nature with his father, he missed his mother and her warmth very much.
"Ibun**, I fucking miss you. So fucking much!" Jeno exclaimed a fraction of second after he arrived at home. He threw himself at her—his face nuzzled her belly with a silent request to be hugged back.
Rania—Jeno’s mother—froze. She didn't believe what she had just heard. "What?"
"I said I miss you so fucking much! Fuck!" Jeno repeated, throwing his mother the sweetest innocent eye smile.
How did her sweet Jeno learn to swear in Korean? She scowled at her ex-husband, demanding an immediate explanation.
Being at the receiving end of her killing glare, Yoonoh swore he would scrub in to give a certain little devil a good hit on the bone when he has bone pin removal surgery in Seoul later on.